The Muppets (2015)

The dysfunctional relationship between sensible Kermit and the perennial diva Miss Piggy drives the show, and there is plenty of inside Hollywood humor, but its most delightful subplot is with Fozzie Bear, who is experimenting with inter-species dating.

This is a clever, laugh-out-loud sitcom written by adults, for adults. It's not too adult for children, but there are definitely jokes that will sail over their heads.

Smartly updated.... the new show owes as much to "The Larry Sanders Show" as it does to "The Office" or "30 Rock."

Smart and consistently funny, ABC’s The Muppets is the closest any broadcast network gets to a comedy home run this fall.

It’s easy to see that the show will only focus on a small group of a large cast of characters, but that group can be bigger than three or four, and Fozzie’s already wacka-wacka’d his way into grating territory by the end of episode two. But you may not even notice that because of one, simple, delightful reason: The Muppets is just pure fun. The characters--both felt and human--are endearing, the jokes are fast, and the workplace set-up is near-bursting with expansion possibilities for the future.

It’s hard, after this encounter with the Muppets, to imagine any confidences from them, private or public, one wouldn’t want to hear more of.

A smart and often witty update to the Muppet brand.

For all its obvious weak spots, the show has turned out pretty well. It's silly but emotionally resonant, and able to call back on Muppets lore without getting lost in it.

It’s a tricky balancing act, and the first two episodes—while far from flawless—have more than enough promise to keep even Statler and Waldorf enticed.

It might take some time to adapt to what the gang is trying to do here, but it’s definitely in sync with the Muppet mission of entertaining everyone at their own level, and for every misjudged moment there are several more that are sublime.

The Muppets does nothing fresh with the [mockumentary] form. If anything, the show effectively demonstrates how contrived it’s always been and how stale it’s become.

[An] uneven cross between “The Office” and “30 Rock.”

A better version of the show peeks out whenever the plot relents and the characters are allowed to let fly with a knowingly groan-worthy play on words, a throwaway non sequitur, or any other hallmark of the Jim Henson school of humor.

The problem, at least for now, is whether the show can find a happy medium between sharpening itself without resorting to any crude or unduly cutting humor. These first two episodes are watchable enough.

If people who grew up with the Muppets and consider them virtually sacred reject this new incarnation, that leaves casual fans--and kids. Is this a show for kids? Not really, but despite some mild talk about Muppet sex lives, there doesn't seem to be a real reason that children can't watch. Whether that audience can keep a much-ballyhooed but far from perfect new show afloat is unclear.

The show is relying too heavily on our built-in affection for those characters and expecting us to do too much of the heavy lifting.

For the most part the show works, and the parts that don’t may just be growing pains from anyone familiar with the old stuff. But one major concern keeps bubbling up: The original series had a lovingly dusty vaudevillian style, an affectionate throwback to a show business world from decades earlier, while this just feels like stuff from five years ago.

So far, there's some laughter in the early episodes of The Muppets and a ton of built-in affection, but the wait for a great show continues.

The result is pleasant enough, but something of a mixed bag.

The truth is, bold as this creative decision was--and executed quite successfully, too--it’s jarring, at best. At worst, it’s a bastardization.... All of that said, in a perverse way, this maturation of the franchise may be exactly what was needed if The Muppets has any hope of being the same lightning rod or have the same longevity as the original Muppet Show, which ran from 1976 to 1981.

The puppetry and however the heck they film these creations display excellent technical artistry. Alas, The Muppets arrives with two flaws: rather less funny, and with too much Miss Piggy.

Certainly, if the question is, can you make a dark, slightly depressing series starring the Muppets, the answer, obviously, is yes. Is this an inappropriate use of the characters? I don't know. Is it strange? Certainly.

The first two episodes of The Muppets, which has its debut on Tuesday, are sometimes funny and have flashes of the original’s charm. But they also reflect a definition of “adult” that could stand to grow up.

Co-creators Bill Prady and Bob Kushell have given the gang the right setting. Now, they just need to figure out how they fit in a selfie-driven world. Newer Muppets like Pepe the King Prawn do better than veteran ones.

The dialogue is funny, but the longer-range question is whether it’s funny enough to keep viewers coming back week after week.

As long as you accept that The Muppets will never quite reach the heights of its forebears, there’s still plenty of room for the show to grow from its trudging pilot.

Bill Prady tries to update Kermit and Company with adult humor Miss Piggy and Kermit have called it quits, draining the Muppets of the warmth and love that made them so lovely in the first place.

It’s hard to get past this iteration of Miss Piggy’s unpleasantness because that’s all there is: She’s not a fully developed moi, just a set of high-maintenance tics. Making Missy Piggy so awful has dour ramifications for the rest of the Muppets: Why are they working so hard for this pig?.... The Muppet who comes off worst is Kermit.... His voice, previously so adorable, began to sound to me mealy and weak, like the vocal equivalent of pleated khakis.

There are some solid jokes and gags scattered throughout the first two episodes. But as I watched them, it was difficult not to feel a sense of deflation that strayed into disappointment. It became more and more clear over the course of those episodes that The Muppets had been jammed into a format that doesn’t quite suit them.